ISTANBUL

Turkish first lady Emine Erdogan received world-renowned Bollywood star and director Aamir Khan on Saturday at the presidential residence at the Huber Mansion in Istanbul.

The meeting was requested by Khan, who informed Erdogan about social responsibility projects he has initiated, including the Water Foundation, which he and his wife established to deliver water to drought-stricken areas in India.

Khan said the first lady is carrying out very important social projects and following humanitarian aid activities, and she congratulated him for his courageous handling of social problems in his films.

He said his wife lived a short time in Turkey, leading her to closely socialize with Turks, and the two communities have a lot of similarities as the discussion drew attention to the common family structure in India and Turkey, as well as the similarity of common word roots in the languages of both communities.

The rich historical texture of food culture and handicrafts of the two countries were also among topics of conversation.

Khan shared memories of how he came to the cinema under the influence of his Muslim mother.

He stopped shooting his movie, Laal Singh Chaddha, an adaption of the 1994 classic film, Forrest Gump, because of the novel coronavirus outbreak in India, and started looking for alternative locations in Turkey to shoot.

He is expected to shoot the rest of the movie in multiple Turkish provinces including Nigde, Adana and Istanbul and invited the first lady to attend the film set.

Earlier, the Indian actor visited the Adana province, meeting fans who thronged to meet the Bollywood star.

* Writing by Jeyhun Aliyev from Ankara